Hebrews Chapter Six, Final Destinations

 

Hebrews 6:2d and of eternal judgment.

 

Eternal judgment: two simple words. When linked together however, they challenge false doctrines that are all too prevalent in the Church. Universalism is the belief that God will not punish the wicked, but that all will go to Heaven one way or another.

Another false doctrine linked with eternal judgment is cessation of being. This means that while the just may enter into everlasting life, the wicked will simply cease existing; since they cease existing forever it can be described as everlasting punishment. These word games rob the Bible of its clear meaning and genuinely do violence to the contrast that is made between the righteous and the wicked.

 

Let us look again at the passage earlier cited in Daniel. “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and contempt,” Daniel 12:2. The Holy Spirit does not give false teachers room to maneuver in this verse. Expounding it very quickly we learn several key facts. 1: people who sleep (are dead) will wake; in other words, they are conscious. 2: some of these sleepers rise into a state of everlasting life. 3: some of these sleepers rise to shame and contempt. Contempt may mean “the offense of being disobedient to or disrespectful of a court and its officers.” All parties rise, but the destinations awaiting them differ, respecting their relation toward God. This definition for the word contempt is most fitting, since we are dealing with the concept of eternal judgment, implying a Judge that passes this sentence over those in His court. Those found in contempt were indeed disrespectful and disobedient, Hebrews 3:18.

 

Another verse which presents a contrast between the righteous and wicked is found in Matthew 25:46. Christ judges the nations based on their treatment of Israel, with the sheep symbolizing the righteous that through faith respected the Jewish people. The goats symbolize the lost that treated Israel with contempt. The destinations of the respective parties, as explained by our Lord Himself, are radically different. “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Everlasting and eternal are synonyms that are completely interchangeable. Therefore we must deduce through simple Biblical exegesis that the nature of both punishment and life are identical: they last forever. The righteous and the wicked both enter into a conscious state upon death, and that state endures forever. “Where, ‘Their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched,’” Mark 9:44, Isaiah 66:24.

 

The burden of proof that cessationists lack hinges on the false teaching that destruction, or death, equals annihilation. When the wicked are punished in the eternal judgment their souls or consciousness are annihilated.  Yet the word annihilate doesn’t appear in Scripture, and, Biblically speaking, is not synonymous with destroy. To destroy something means to ruin it. The function once intended has been lost; its functionality is gone, it is useless. It is destroyed. Annihilation, in the sense used by cessationists, implies the absolute removal of something from existence as though it never was. The Bible does not teach this doctrine, but men who would judge God for His sentencing think the cessation of existence is a kinder treatment of the wicked than eternal punishment.

 

It is no different from the atheist who can take some little comfort believing nothing they did in this life will be judged in the next because when they die, they cease existing. Yes, eternal punishment is a death sentence, but death in Scripture never means cessation of existence, it means separation. Man is spiritually dead in sins and trespasses before believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. If dead equals annihilation than man has no soul to redeem; it is already gone, erased from existence. Or this could be taken one step further to imply we are annihilated, as Paul explains, in sins and trespasses. But if dead equals destroyed, then spiritually we are ruined; our intended spiritual functionality toward God is broken. We are separated from God by sin. And should we remain in that state of transgression when we die, we remain separated forever, going to a destination God created for those who choose to remain without reconciliation.

 

 John the Baptist tells us that, “he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him,” John 3:36. Jesus adds, “be he who does not believe is condemned already,” John 3:18. One’s faith determines one’s fate. Universalism runs contrary to Jesus’ teaching by demanding that God let all men into Heaven, no matter their belief (or lack of it). Going a step further than cessation of existence theorists, Universalists renounce Hell and judgment, though no one in Scripture mentions Hell and judgment as much as our Lord does throughout His ministry. It is written, “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,” Hebrews 9:27. “This,” would be death. After this, dying once, men face the judgment. John in Revelation devotes 5 verses in chapter 20 to the Great White Throne judgment of the lost and the Lake of Fire, verses 11-15. If Hell is the local jail, the Lake of Fire is the maximum-security prison the prisoners are consigned to after sentencing is passed.

 

Here, in conscious torment, the lost will realize their chance to have been saved and how they spurned it, and it will gnaw at their conscience, like the fire the rich man suffered and thought he was physically burning from, Luke 16:24. The single punishment for sin is death, according to Scripture. Death is spiritual separation from God in this life, according to Scripture. The Second Death is eternal separation from God in the next life, according to Scripture. One punishment, fair and impartial, for one crime: sin. The sentencing will be for how severely one sinned in light of our awareness, Luke 12:47, 48. The reason why one stands to be sentenced at all is our rejection of the Savior, as noted in the passages cited from John. Christ is life, and refusing to belief on Him forbids us from receiving His gift. Not having life, we remain under judgment and are tried for the multitude of our sins weighed against the knowledge of our wrongdoing. God offered the remedy in His Son, so He has done all that needs to be done to counter this grim and awful fate. Universalism robs the Lord of His prerogative of judgment. Cessation of existence attempts to create an easy way out of punishment by offering an end to everlasting wrath. But it is this doctrine that should compel the saints to preach the gospel. “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men,” 2 Corinthians 5:11.